Veronica Mars: Rob Thomas is a whore

Hey, Piz said it, not me. Far as I'm concerned, Rob Thomas is a good guy.

Spoilers for the "Veronica Mars" series finale -- and thank you very much, CW promo guys, for that taunting "season finale" ad right before it started, as if there's any value in pretending it's not dead -- coming up just as soon as I seal up our doggie door...

Sigh... Rob said he was very happy with how they ended the season, and he was right. These two episodes were easily the highlight of this self-contained bloc, and the finale was by far the best episode of the season -- probably up in my top 5 "Veronica" episodes ever. I still can't blame Dawn Ostroff and Moonves for pulling the plug -- the audience had very clearly rejected this show -- but I feel a lot sadder about it now than I would have if we had ended after, say, the Uganda episode, or even the Paul Rudd episode.

Or maybe I'm just feeling sad because of what Veronica did to Keith. My wife felt that was a lousy ending for the show, but it felt right to me. This began as a noir show, and while those influences waned in the later seasons (especially after Lamb died and Keith became sheriff), I was glad to have it back for the finale. Veronica's always had this bull in a china shop approach, and she's gotten away with it with few repercussions for herself or the people she cared about. Not this time. Great work by Enrico Colantoni as Keith began realizing he was investigating his daughter, and equally great work by Kristen when she finally came home after Jake Kane told her there was no fixing this for Keith. Veronica casting a futile vote for Keith and walking off into the rain is a bleak ending, but strangely appropriate. We're left dangling a bit on what will happen to Keith -- He'll almost certainly lose the election, but will he do jail time? Lose his PI license, too? -- but as series-ending danglers go, I've seen far, far worse ("Now And Again" being the one that messed with me the most).

And it also felt appropriate to return, at the end, to the show's other core elements: Veronica taking on the rich and powerful (both the fraud ring and, especially, The Castle), Veronica as a school outcast (and having an undeserved reputation as a whore), Veronica squaring off with Jake Kane and Clarence Wiedman, Veronica being at odds with law-enforcement, etc.

It was great -- and, since I either didn't notice his name in the guest credits or they kept it until the end, surprising -- to have Kyle Secor back. His delivery of "Veronica Mars? VERONICA MARS?!?!?!" was a thing of beauty, and the huge portraits of Duncan and Lilly in the mansion were both a callback to the show's origins and a reminder of how much Jake has lost. His daughter's dead. His son is going to be a fugitive for the rest of his life. His wife seems gone. Now he's just a cranky rich man with only his stupid secret society to take care of. I'd feel a little sorry for him if he wasn't, you know, such a bastard.

Along the way, we had characters who had either been too absent or too uninteresting returning to prominence and form: Weevil is planting a foot (probably on the injured leg) back on the wrong side of the criminal line, Wallace is flying model planes and making sacrifices for Veronica, Logan has violence issues, and Mac is using her mad computer skills to help Veronica (I can't remember the last time she did this on a case). After a season in which the supporting cast felt adrift and too often absent, it was nice to have them all back and all acting like I remembered them, and none of it felt like a reset button was being hit.

Some briefer, more specific thoughts on the episodes to follow:

• I didn't see the point of the answering machine payoff in the first episode. If Veronica had the whole thing recorded on her Sidekick, what does it matter if the machine at the office did or didn't get it? (Also, one of my few nitpicks of the episodes: How do these techno-savvy fraudsters not recognize that Veronica could be screwing them one of 17 different ways with that Sidekick?)
• Wallace wearing the electro-shock collar was massively creepy -- and made me even more invested in Veronica taking them down -- only to be surpassed in the creepy factor by Gory's confession about his dad and uncle and the woodshop.
  
• And speaking of Gory, I suppose Logan's fate is also something of a dangler, but he's always had a death wish, so it fit.
• One other complaint: Dick wallowing in guilt over how he treated Cassidy didn't really work (the character's been too shallow for far too long to make me care about his feelings now) and was abruptly dropped as soon as he found the Veronica/Piz sex video.
• The sound on my DVR dropped out for almost the entire scene in the first hour where Wallace was told about The Castle. Was anything useful said? And did anyone not assume that the sex tape came from a Castle camera planted to keep an eye on Wallace?
• Kristen sings one last time! Too bad it wasn't something more interesting than "Bad Day," even if that was appropriate (and funny) for the situation.
  

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: The Dando Warhols?

Brief spoilers for "Veronica Mars" coming up just as soon as I warn people about the dangers of latenight swimming...

I was half-tempted to turn this entire post into a mock version of "Roy Rules!" called "Rudd Rules!" in tribute to how great Paul Rudd was as Desmond. Then I realized two things: 1)Parodies of parodies are kinda lame, and 2)There are other things to talk about in this episode, a vast improvement over last week's preachy, simplistic Racial Profiling Is Bad, MMMkay? show.

Start with the inevitable coupling of Mac and Max. In the space of a season, Mac has gone from the asexual virgin scarred by Cassidy to a girl having to choose between two suitable guys (or cafeteria foods, if you prefer the "absurd level of symbolism" scene). Seeing Mac and Max's hot nerd-on-nerd action as they put together Logan's website was fun, and yet I can't help feeling that Mac made the wrong choice, that Max is so obviously compatible with her that something's got to be wrong. Or maybe the writers are trying to make it up to the character after traumatizing her last year and then marginalizing her this year.

Then there's the return of Leo and the entrance of Vinnie Van Lowe into the race for sheriff. Good to see both characters, though this subplot more than the other ones -- including Veronica and Piz, and Logan's angst over same -- suffers from the real-world knowledge that there probably won't be much follow-through to it. If the show's coming back next year in college format, then it's fun to speculate about the havoc Vinnie could wreak as sheriff, and whether Leo might be another complication in Veronica's love life. But chances are neither will have a chance to go anywhere, either by cancellation or the FBI time-jump. Ah, well.

But, obviously, the highlight of the episode was Rudd, who took the stock character of bitter aging rock star and made me feel like I hadn't seen it a thousand times before. Particular favorites: comparing Veronica to "a feisty young Barbara Eden" (a reference designed to point out how old he is), him mocking the fake Jews For Jesus group, him instantly regretting the ocean dip ("OH MY GOD, I DON'T RECOMMEND THIS!"), him baiting Keith about The Beatles, and the brief snippet of Rudd and Rob Thomas sporting their Evan Dando wigs in that old My Pretty Pony video.

If last week was a sign of what the self-contained college show would look like in the future, then I'm fine with it probably not happening. If this one is a better indicator, then I'm more disappointed.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: You give love quadrangles a bad name

"Veronica Mars" spoilers coming up just as soon as I have a teen movie marathon...

I already dealt with the whole FBI thing in this morning's column. If Warner Bros. hadn't sent me both tonight's episode and next week's, I would be very ready to see the end of "Veronica: The College Years," because this one was a big flat dud, but next week's is a lot of fun. But we'll talk about the awesomeness of Mr. Paul Rudd next week, while right now we're stuck talking about some "Afterschool Special"-level speechifying about racial profiling and the Iraq war, plus the latest non-interesting development in the love quadrangle. (This show and "Battlestar Galactica" are really scorching the earth for all future TV quadrangles, aren't they?)

In fairness, I rather liked the Keith fake ID plot, and not just because I was glad to see Jack McGee employed during the "Rescue Me" hiatus. Keith runs a much tighter ship than Lamb, so a sheriff's department culture clash seemed inevitable. Plus, it provided some good conflict between Keith (back to being the establishment) and Veronica (still the outlaw), as well as some long-absent Keith/Wallace interaction (as well as him busting on "Stosh"). I also liked some of the non-quadrangle aspects of the party, like Dick getting his comeuppance and the inevitable meeting of Mac and Max.

But the mystery of the week was a snooze, and I'm long past caring about Logan and Veronica. The idea of Piz kissing Veronica into submission was a bit surprising, I'll give you, but I can't even get too invested in that because I know in the back of my mind that it's an incredibly slim chance that the show will return next year with Veronica still in college (and therefore, with this relationship in any way a factor).

I'm trying not to sound too harsh, because I really do like next week's show, but this wasn't exactly triumphant return. What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars, FBI? take two

So for today's column, I talked to Rob Thomas about the genesis of the FBI idea, what it might entail for the future of "Veronica Mars," etc. (There's also a short secondary item at the end about the "Law & Order" franchise.) Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars, FBI?

Some people have been asking what I know about this Hollywood Reporter story about "Veronica Mars" doing a time jump to season four so that Veronica will be training at the FBI Academy in Quantico.

Getting details on this one has been hard, because no one wants to talk on the record, and Rob won't talk about it period, but here's what little I've been able to gather:

• If this happens, Veronica won't be studying at the FBI Academy; she'll be a rookie agent.
• All of the actors are still signed for next season, though I can't imagine all -- or even most, or maybe even anybody save Kristen Bell and maybe Jason Dohring -- surviving into the new format, unless Veronica gets assigned to the FBI's Neptune office. (Logan's rich and has nothing better to do than follow Veronica from place to place, assuming they ever get back together.)
  
• The comparative success of the Pussycat Dolls show has made the chances of "Veronica Mars" returning in its current incarnation all but impossible. On the other hand, I know at least one decision-maker at the CW who's intrigued by the possible new format, and everyone there wants to stay in business with Kristen if they can.
  

So that's what I've got. Now three questions for you, my little research monkeys:

• What shows have done a significant mid-series time jump? So far, I've got "Alias," "Galactica" and "Wonder Woman" (which shifted from WWII to the '70s between seasons). I don't count a show that just did a time jump for the finale, like most of the "Trek" spin-offs.
  
• What shows have been successful after so thoroughly changing their premise? I guess if you count "All in the Family" and "Archie Bunker's Place" as one show, that counts, which leads me to...
• If the CW decides they want a new title -- under the theory that new viewers aren't going to come to a fourth year show, even one that's been totally revamped -- what would you call the new show? And I'll pre-empt all the "Silence of the Lamb" suggestions right now. RIP, Lamb.
  

Fire away. Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: Professor Landry in the conservatory with the candlestick?

"Veronica Mars" whodunnit spoilers coming right up...

Hmmm... Not as good as the last couple of episodes, but a solid resolution to the Dean O'Dell mystery. I had Tim pegged as a person of interest ever since he showed up in the season premiere, and that was before I realized he was the same actor who'd played Lucky last year, and I think Rob and company played fairly with the resolution. I even bought into Tim being an ineffectual dweeb while "helping" Veronica clear Landry, though the scene where he offered to make her his new TA tipped the writers' hand. (That and the fact that there was too much time left in the episode, and I knew we weren't going to spend it on more Logan and Parker.)

That said, I think this case, even more than the rape story, serves as an object lesson for why mini-arcs probably aren't the best idea for "Veronica Mars." What was already probably going to feel rushed in seven episodes got squeezed into six (UPDATE: check the comments for Rob's explanation of what got cut from the storyline), which wasn't enough time to establish more than a handful of suspects. I'm glad they didn't go the Roberto Portalegre route from "Murder One" and make the killer somebody who had five seconds of screen time in an early episode, but at the same time, the reveal wasn't going to be mind-blowing no matter if it was Landry, Mindy or Tim. If 22 episodes is too long to drag out all but the first season mysteries, than six episodes is far too short on anything that's supposed to have a play-along factor.

Some other thoughts:

• So Keith is only acting sheriff, huh? In the (sadly unlikely) event of a fourth season, that's clever. Rob can have some fun pitting Veronica and Keith against each other for a few episodes to see how it works, and if it doesn't and they get renewed, Keith can lose the special election come fall.
• I'd have to say that Wallace is much closer to Rory than Lorelai. What say you?
• Question for the female readership about The Code: given that Parker is primarily a friend of a friend to Veronica, is it a foul for her to date Logan? And for Logan to date her? My wife, who watches the show off and on, said she couldn't give a ruling on the former without seeing all the episodes where Veronica and Parker hang out.
• My DVR was being extremely cranky last night, frequently dropping out the sound as Veronica and Tim discussed the plot. One thing I lost entirely was Tim's explanation of how he knew to look in the "Taps" DVD case for the incriminating disc. Was it just that the rest of Grieco's video collection didn't match that, or something else?

What did everybody else think?

Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: The stench of bread

"Veronica Mars" spoilers coming up just as soon as I check the resolution on my camera-phone...

Wow. For the most part, I've been perfectly happy with seasons two and three, but it's episodes like these last two that remind me of what this show looks like when it's really cooking. We got comedy, we got tragedy, we got a pair of mysteries that are actually interesting as both puzzles and as drama. We got it all.

Rest in peace, Don Lamb. I'll miss you for all the goodness that you brought to this show: as an irritant, as a plot device, as comic relief, as a classic noir character, and as one of the most likable jerks in primetime. Trying to find out whether this was entirely plot-related as an excuse to put Keith back in office, or whether Michael Muhney wanted to do a pilot or something else, but the guy gave his all in every limited appearance.

I love that the show didn't try to humanize Lamb in his final appearance. He went down as just as big an ass as the day we met him -- including an appropriate call-back to his "Go see the Wizard" moment with Wallace way back in the pilot. At first, I thought the reddish liquid oozing from underneath him was paint, and that this was going to be a fakeout like Desmond at the start of his flashback on "Lost" last week, but as soon as he said that he smelled bread, Marian (who's worked in lots of hospitals) said, "Oh, he's going to die." Damn.

Keith as sheriff has obvious implications for the conclusion of the O'Dell arc, but I'm curious to see how this will affect the show long-term -- assuming there is a long term. It's one thing for him to skirt the rules and help Veronica do the same when he's a disreputable PI, but now? Veronica just gave him material evidence on a murder case about 30 seconds before he was offered the job; does he sit on that? Can it be a noir world if the heroine's virtuous father is the head cop? Will Veronica and Keith find themselves on opposite sides more often now?

On the O'Dell case, I have to put my money on Tim the TA. He's obviously the one who put the bug in Landry's phone, and the odds of Landry the criminology genius killing a man while wearing a monogrammed shirt -- or, if he did so, not disposing of said evidence in a foolproof manner -- are slim. Tim also graded Veronica's perfect murder paper that was used as the premise for Cyrus' murder, though of course it was also posted on-line. At this point, I feel like it's down to him or Mel Stoltz, who keeps being treated like an ominous figure even though he never does or says anything. But I could be wrong; I was convinced Guttenberg did it last year because I felt like Rob was trying too hard to make us forget he existed.

Other things to love:

• Mac finally gets some sexual satisfaction after the bad hand the writers have dealt her in the past;
• The gang goes on an all-night scavenger hunt that actually feels like fun college hijinks;
• Logan can immediately recognize that they're doing the wrong Kama Sutra pose;
  
• Veronica goes even butchier than usual while locked up in stir, countered by her incredibly girlish, hilarious, "I do! I do!" at the prospect of release;
  
• Cliff F'in McCormack getting one killer line after another, from the "Caged Heat" joke to his repeat encounter with Richard Grieco (the second "Don't I know you?" moment of the hour);
  
• The lighting and photography of the furnace scene with Weevil, which was very noir;
  
• Keith's takedown of Mrs. Coach;

One thing I'm ambivalent about:

• Parker and Logan's now inevitable hook-up. I suppose it's preferable to Veronica and Piz, and it's good to see Logan just enjoying himself instead of his recent emo spiral, but it feels like a TV contrivance to delay the inevitable reunion.

Still, so, so, so pleased by the last couple. What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: Thank (Little Girl) God

"Veronica Mars" spoilers coming up just as soon as I come to terms with having actually heard a Nick Lachey song for the first time ever...

A two-part Mystery of the Week(s)? Can they do that? Very cool, not just because it was unexpected, but because it gave the episode room to significantly advance the Dean O'Dell mystery, give Logan a decent character subplot, and not have to rush to wrap up Veronica's case all neat and tidy.

The LoVe stuff rarely does anything for me, but Juliette Goglia (aka Little Girl God from "Joan of Arcadia") was wonderful as Logan's pint-sized new BFF. With most kid actresses, the character would have been insufferably cute and wise, but Goglia played her as a real girl who just happened to have a few useful insights. The elevator scene was a scream, what with Heather's star-struck reaction to Veronica and Veronica trying to make some sense of why some little girl was wearing her clothes and palling around with Logan. Also, any episode in which Dick repeatedly outsmarts Logan gets bonus points from me.

I don't want to comment too much on the coach murder until it's resolved, but a few brief thoughts on it:

• If they're going to keep doing Wallace on the basketball team stories, the coach had to go, because that actor was terrible. I was embarrassed watching the locker room scene.
  
• Okay, so they've got money in the budget for Percy Daggs in this episode, and the case involves Veronica investigating the murder of Wallace's coach. So why did Wallace get only a token cameo at the beginning? It's better than nothing, but still feels like a waste.
• Loved the direction and photography of the scene on the cliff. Not only did it seem for a second like Veronica was about to join Meredith Grey by going into the water, but it evoked memories of the bus crash. (The bus crash mystery was problematic, but I always loved that shot of Veronica standing at cliff's edge staring down at the wreck.)
• Speaking of cliffs... Cliff! I love that guy.
• I appreciate any efforts to get people to watch this show, but can someone please explain to the CW promo department that putting the final scene of an episode prominently into all the ads kind of ruins all the fun?

As for the O'Dell murder, I'm glad they spent so much time on the case, as I was starting to lose interest. In particular, Cyrus' recommendation letter from beyond the grave was a nice touch; I had already liked the dean, but it was good to get a reminder that Veronica should care about what happened to him. (Season two's "I Am God" tried to accomplish the same thing, but came way too late in that story.)

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: Jagged little pill

Spoilers for "Veronica Mars" coming up just as soon as I retrieve my cube from impound...

Two factors beyond my control make me feel at a bit of a loss to comment this week. With the A-story, my job got in the way. With the Dean O'Dell mystery, I again have to blame my TiFaux, which is seriously messing with me of late.

On the A-story, way back when I interviewed Rob Thomas in the summer for a story about the process of writing the mysteries, he mentioned some potential "college-age crimes" he had been batting around the room, notably "this idea of a college girl getting pregnant, and someone getting the idea they're doing her a favor by slipping her RU-486." From the logline, I knew this was that episode, and as soon as Veronica met the roommate, I knew exactly what had happened and why, so I can't really comment on the playalong element. Did any of you figure it out in advance? If so, when and how? If not, who were you suspecting and why?

I did appreciate the sympathetic portrayal of Bonnie's father (played by Hey It's That Guy! Chris Ellis), as well as the first real father/daughter team-up of the season, even if it was briefer than I would have hoped.

As for the O'Dell stuff, my DVR pulled one of its more annoying tricks and spent a good chunk of the scene at Mrs. O'Dell's house (pretty much everything from Grieco's exit on) either pixellating, freezing, dropping out the sound, or some combination of all three. The world righted itself immediately afterwards, but I have no idea what Keith and Cyrus' son discussed, what he talked about with the widow, etc., etc. I think we're halfway through the arc now, and I don't feel any closer to understanding what's what, but I also missed a good chunk of what I'm assuming was useful information.

Lucky for me, the DVR didn't give me any problems whatsoever with all the LoVe angst. Yippee! Nasty, judgmental skank Madison may be, but Veronica cubing her car was over the line, and I'm glad Veronica realized that before it was too late. Beyond that, this is an aspect of the show that's never really appealed to me even in the good times of Veronica's love life (I wasn't one of the fans who was breathlessly wondering who was at the door at the end of season one), so I can't say that I'm any more bored with this than I was with, say, Kendall flirting with Duncan.

So, essentially, I have no opinion on anything this week. Which means it's time to open the floor to you fine people. What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: Detectin' ain't easy

Spoilers for "Veronica Mars" coming right up...

As most of you know, after the Dean O'Dell arc wraps up, "Veronica" goes off the air for a couple of months for the CW's "aspirational" reality show about the Pussycat Dolls, then comes back with five self-contained episodes as a test to see if that's the direction the show should go in next year. (Assuming, of course, there is a next year.) And if the last couple of episodes are an indication, maybe done-in-one is the right direction, since the Mysteries of the Week have been by far the best thing about each.

While trying to blackmail a judge was one of the two or three dumbest things Veronica has ever done, the story overall worked very well. Early on, there was just enough ambiguity that I would have buyed either the Twue Wuv or blackmail explanations for Wendy's behavior, and by the time Max bought her freedom, the two characters had been so well-established that the show could get away with several scenes in which all the regulars were either absent or besides the point. I can't remember the last time I invested this much in one of Veronica's clients, and it's a credit to Diane Ruggiero that I cared about both Max and Wendy.

On the other stories, we're now two weeks into the O'Dell mystery and I don't feel like we've learned a whole lot, plus they've played the same note twice in a row about Keith's fame getting in the way of a good undercover op. The 'shipper scenes felt character-consistent, but I'm tired of stories about Veronica's trust issues, and the promos for next week (which, in fairness, are probably as non-representative as all the CW promos have been) looked like we're in for even more angsty dullness.

Some other thoughts:

• So I guess the mission to smuggle in every line of "Lebowski" one piece at a time has now been overtaken by a quest for "Galactica" references.
• Am I the only one who absolutely didn't recognize Madison until Veronica identified her? Either a bad wig or a bad hairstyle or something.
  
• Favorite scene: Keith saluting Lamb at the stoplight. Diane gives good one-liner, but sometimes the best comedy is silent.
  
• Somebody with more free time than me want to go back and do the math on how many episodes each non-Veronica/Keith/Logan regular has been in this season? Rob said in his TWoP interview that the supporting cast (other than Parker) would be featured more heavily in the rest of the season than they were in the rape arc, but Wallace has been MIA for a couple of weeks and Weevil was the only non-Holy Trinity member to show up here.
  

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: Would you like to buy a monkey?

Some brief spoilers for "Veronica Mars" just as soon as I figure out why "Stop Being a Hater and Learn to Love the O.C." didn't include an author's photo...

So good to have this show back, and with an episode that was largely firing on all cylinders. I've lost all interest in the LoVe 'ship, or whatever it's being called at the moment, and feel like they should have let the separation play out over more episodes (even if six weeks have passed in Veronica Time), but beyond that subplot, I was very pleased.

Best Mystery of the Week in quite some time. Even though I suspected the male lab jockey almost from the start (mainly because I recognized him from ABC's short-lived "Night Stalker" remake), there were some good twists and turns, an ethical conundrum for Veronica (the monkey was awfully cute, I'll admit) and a refreshingly downbeat ending (Veronica gives back the cash and another monkey's going to get capped). I like that Veronica isn't subtle when she goes undercover; she's a blunt instrument, where Keith occasionally can be a scalpel. (Even if his own minor celebrity screwed him over with Landry, I thought he made a good approach.) And, most of all, I was glad to have Mac get by far her biggest showcase of the season, to see some bonding amongst all three ladies (the trolling for guys nature of the story made Wallace's absence less obvious), and to see Kristen Bell break out her metal face twice in one hour.

Landry's such an obvious suspect in O'Dell's murder that I'm guessing upfront he didn't do it. So who else is already in the suspect pool? Mrs. O'Dell, Tim the TA, the shady alumnus, maybe the Lilith House women (though probably not)... anyone I'm missing?

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: Thank you, sir, may I have another?

Spoilers for the "Veronica Mars" rape story finale just as soon as I try to figure out who that funny brunette in the "Ask me about my STD" t-shirt was supposed to be...

And so we've come to the end of our first "Veronica" mini-mystery, and I'm mostly happy. There were the usual scares as Veronica faced the big bad, but not in a way that copied either "Leave It to Beaver" or "Not Pictured." All but one castmember (Lamb) appeared, and all but one of the rest (Weevil) played a significant role. Rob and company played as fair as they could with the identity of rapist(s), though with only nine episodes to play with instead of 22, they had to toss out some very crucial information very quickly.

In particular, the relationship between Mercer and Moe and how it was forged during their own stint in Professor Homer's Stanford Prison Experiment had only one hint prior to this episode, way back in "My Big Fat Greek Rush Week." I quote Couch Baron's TWoP recap of the scene:

Wallace tells Moe that he can't be there because of the experiment, and Moe replies that he did it the year before [...] and says that it's pretty intense. He gets an odd look on his face as he adds, "It's, like... life-changing." He pauses long enough before leaving to prompt "Buh?" looks from Wallace and Veronica.

Maybe it wouldn't have felt so out of left field if we had been able to see more of Horshack and Rafe, the freshman class's equivalent of Mercer and Moe (albeit without all the rape-y badness), but the bit about Horshack helping Rafe cheat happened off-camera, and as far as I know, the first time we knew Mercer did the Experiment was when Veronica saw the picture of him and Moe in their respective costumes. (And even there, it had been so long since I saw the episode that all I noticed was Mercer and Moe and not their costumes; the backstory didn't click in my head until Mercer slapped Moe and said, "Stop blubbering, prisoner!")

That aside, there were a couple of other nagging issues, but nothing that troubled me overly. First, how could it not have occurred to Veronica sooner (like back in the episode where she exonerated Mercer) that it's possible to pre-tape a radio call-in show, how could it have not occurred to the cops to ask (Lamb's a smug ass, but not an idiot), and how could no one at the radio station have noticed that Mercer often wasn't in the studio when his show was airing? Second, if Moe was too squeamish to do anything but bait and shave Veronica's head, who committed the rape when Mercer and Logan were having their Light My Fire trip south of the border? Did Mercer order Moe to do it to give him an alibi (which turned out to be useless after the motel fire), or was that one of the Lilith House women doing a copycat fake? As Veronica asked last week, exactly how many of the rapes were real?

I like the role that Parker played in rescuing Veronica this time. Given the nature of the plot, Veronica almost had to get drugged at some point, which also meant she needed some saving (unless she has a mutant healing factor we haven't been told about), and it felt appropriate that it was a former victim -- and that Veronica managed to get her licks in with both Mercer and Moe before the GHB completely got to her.

We'd been heading towards the Veronica/Logan split practically since the season started. Good as Jason Dohring is at the puppy dog eyes, I hope he doesn't have to keep at it for too long. The thing is, Veronica does let people help her, as we saw when she recruited Wallace, Piz, Mac and even Moe (whoops) to assist at the Pi Sig party. It just has to be on her terms, and she has to clearly be in charge, and Logan's not having that. He wants to be Veronica's savior, not her sidekick. Nice closing touch with him getting himself thrown into a locked room with Veronica's attackers, though at what point is he nearing his third strike?

Meanwhile, Rob quite cleverly threw the start of the new mystery into the tail end of the first one. A few weeks ago, I dismissed Dean O'Dell as a serious rape suspect because "I think it'd be a waste of Begley and a good character who could be around for several years to dispense with him in nine episodes." Show's what I know: they find a way to get rid of the guy without making him the rapist, or even seriously discussed as a suspect. Sigh... I liked the guy, but now it's on to guessing whodunnthis. I think the Lilith women were busy throwing eggs outside, so that leaves his wife, Dr. Landry and the influential (and mobbed-up?) alumnus who bullied him into reinstating the Greek system.

So what did everybody else think? Satisfying conclusion or not? Click here to read the full post

When Logan was right (twice)

Spoilers for "Veronica Mars" and "Gilmore Girls" coming up just as soon as I tell the FBI to call off the search for Tina Majorino...

First things first with "Veronica Mars": I don't care whether or not Keith knows that Veronica got a bad haircut from her attacker. If Keith Mars knew A)that his daughter had been drugged on campus, and B)that there was a serial rapist at work on campus who was drugging his victims, there's no way he wouldn't be on some kind of door-to-door rampage through Hearst. Veronica's a lone wolf, that's part of her personality and appeal, and I get that, but sometimes the contrivances to keep her working solo feel, well, contrived.

Fortunately, I was over the Keith silliness by the time Patty Hearst got abducted again, and this was one of the season's strongest episodes. With Diane Rugggiero on script, you know there's going to be the funny, and we got it with "keister egg," Veronica's weird "Tommy" dance, or the triple-layered Lebowski/Citizen Kane/William Randolph Hearst thing going on with Bud Rose (flip that one, why don't you?), his missing wife, toady assistant, etc. Plus, we did get a Veronica/Keith team-up, just on the Mystery of the Week instead of the rape arc.

And the arc itself took a big leap forward by essentially clearing Nish and the feminists, because there's no way so much evidence would be pointing towards them in the penultimate episode if they actually did it. My take is that they faked a few of the rapes, and obviously that they raped Chip themselves, but they were just copycatting the real rapist, the one who attacked Maebe and Parker and gave Veronica her close shave last week. I also think the Pi Sigs are in the clear -- from a dramatic standpoint, it's more interesting if the Lilith House women have been doing these copycat crimes to frame the wrong people -- which leaves a whole bunch of people who weren't in this episode: Prof. Landry, Tim the TA, Moe the RA, maybe even Mercer Hayes (but probably not, as he would need an accomplice to attack Veronica while he was still in the pokey).

I tried not to pay too much attention to the previews for next week, but it looks like we'll have the entire supporting cast (save maybe Weevil, who I didn't spot) back for the big finale -- and yet, knowing Rob and company's MO, in the end Veronica no doubt will have to throw down with the big bad all by her lonesome.

As a non-shipper of any kind, I'm not too bothered by the latest Veronica/Logan tumult, but I was pleased to see him win an argument about her stubborn, judgmental qualities. Of course, Veronica went icy on him afterwards, but at least from a show perspective, we're not supposed to be feeling that Veronica's perfect when she clearly isn't.

Similarly being taken down a peg by her Logan is Rory over on "Gilmore Girls." I'm not a Logan H. fan, but Rory needed to wake up and smell the hypocrisy. I ain't saying she a golddigger, but she ain't messing with no broke Marty, you know?

(In fairness, Jess and Dean were poor, but Rory has become much more enamored of the blue-blood lifestyle -- both through her grandparents and through Logan -- since she started college. Remember her whining that they couldn't spend the summer traveling through every country in Europe?)

Not really enthralled by Lorelai and Christopher's big move-in, but I continue to like Luke and April's father-daughter bonding, and I'm still trying to map out the whole "Philadelphia Story" bit at the end. Lorelai's obviously Katharine Hepburn, but does Luke see himself as Cary Grant (the ex/love of her life who convinces Kate to take him back over her bland new fella), or is Christopher supposed to be Cary Grant while Luke is Jimmy Stewart (the new guy who mistakenly thinks he has a shot at Kate, even though she's destined to get back with Cary Grant in the end)?

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars gets a full season order -- sort of

Just heard from Rob Thomas, and the CW has given "Veronica Mars" a back seven instead of the traditional back nine. This is obviously brand-new information for them, so it'll take a while to figure out how this will affect the later two arcs. (My guess: since they're already at work on arc #2, the last one will take the biggest hit.)

This is good news, certainly for this season, and I don't know that the slightly reduced order is a big danger sign for the possibility of a fourth season. The CW hasn't been as successful out of the gate as expected, and they may be looking to pinch pennies until they get through to next year. Or maybe I'm just being naively optimistic. Wouldn't be the first time.

UPDATE: Rob says he's still trying to figure things out, but as of now, the plan is to do a four-episode arc for the end of the season. Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: Shave and a haircut

Another day, another column about a show that blatantly steals from other material, in this case "Groundhog Taye," aka "Day Break."

"Veronica Mars" spoilers coming up just as soon as I finish printing out a Missing Persons poster for Tina Majorino...

Remind me to stop watching CW promos, okay? Because the parking garage sequence would have been about 10 times scarier if I hadn't seen so much of it last week. Given that Logan didn't call out until he was really close to Veronica's car, did the rapist really get scared off or was he just sending Veronica a message? Either way, bad move on his part and good move on the writers' part: as if Veronica didn't already have enough motivation to find this loser (guilt over Parker, her own issues from Shelly Pomeroy's party, etc.), now he's gone and touched her. And nobody touches Veronica without some serious payback.

Well, nobody except Liam Fitzpatrick, I suppose. His little wrestling match with her wasn't nearly as intense as last year's attempt at involuntary tattooing, but I suppose they had to save the real feeling of peril for the episode's climax. Completely unexpected and nice use of Vinnie to save the day, as I thought for sure that Veronica had called either Keith or Lamb before going in. Looks like the Fitzes are going to be more trouble for Keith, maybe even the subject of arc number two, but exactly how Liam not know that Kendall is dead?

I've been trying to put my finger on why the intermittent appearances by the non-Veronica/Keith/Logan members of the cast have seemed so much more obvious this year. Obviously, in the first season, we didn't know them as well and their presence wasn't as important as we got to know Veronica and see her at work. In season two, Logan had been promoted to every episode status, Mac wasn't even a regular character yet, and Veronica was hanging with Duncan for the entire patch of the season when Wallace was missing. But this year, there's no buffer of a character the writers know they can use up by mid-season, and there have been more episodes whose subject matters made certain absences more glaring. (Piz, for instance, was obviously missed in the episode about Wallace's academic struggles.)

For once, I thought the absence of Wallace and Mac felt appropriate, as it made Veronica feel more alone as she tried to deal with feeling betrayed by her dad, her boyfriend and her mentor, but at the same time, the amount of time she spent hanging out with her sorta-client felt off. It was never really established that she was taking this on as a case for a fee, as opposed to just helping out some random girlfriend of a guy she didn't even know. So while the story worked as a parallel to Veronica's problems with Logan, with all the other stuff going on and so many friends missing, I kept wondering why both Veronica and the show itself were spending so much time on this Mystery of the Week. The better we get to know the supporting characters and the closer each arc gets to its conclusion, the harder it gets to care about stories that don't have a really personal connection for Veronica.

That said, I thought all of the personal stuff was spot on. Veronica has been betrayed plenty of times in the past (good callback to her mom and Jake Kane), but she also holds certain people to impossible standards, and I liked that the episode acknowledged both sides of that. I didn't see Logan's Tijuana story coming as the thing he couldn't tell Veronica about, and I look forward to even more ugliness in the Keith/Harmony story, because that woman does not seem done with him, not by a long shot.

What did everybody else think? And, other than Mercer apparently being cleared and Moe having keys to everyone's dorm room, do you feel like we get any closer to identifying the rapist? Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: The two faces of Veronica

Spoilers for "Veronica Mars" just as soon as I stock up on little shampoo bottles...

When we last left our heroine, she was in danger of going from prickly to, well, something without the "ly" (or the feminine equivalent). And there were plenty of times last night where I still wanted Veronica to cool it with the cold, judgemental act. Seriously, I was on the verge of buying her one of Tom Smykowski's Jump To Conclusions mats, especially after we saw what she did to poor, semi-innocent Ratner. (That's assuming that Ratner wasn't in on the scam with Tim the TA, but that scene with Tim and Veronica suggested the Rat was just an unwitting dupe.) There comes a point where all of this j'accuse!ing doesn't just make Veronica less appealing, but less bright. She's a flawed character, always has been, but even at her lowest moments, she and we could rely on the belief that she was a smart cookie.

But this episode did a much better job of balancing Veronica's baser instincts -- also including the worst of her green-eyed monster in that scene with the hotel desk clerk, who would have been totally justified in blowing off Veronica, pal of Logan or no -- with showing her friendlier, more generous side. A lot of that comes from the most interaction she's had with Wallace since the season premiere, as their friendship has always shown Veronica at her best. But we also got to see her reaching out to Parker, treating Piz with something resembling humanity, torn about what to do for Dean O'Dell and about getting that girl expelled from Hearst, being vaguely cordial with Lamb (and vice versa), etc. Again, I don't ask for Veronica to be perfect, and as long as Rob and Co. can balance Evil Veronica with Normal Veronica (to paraphrase Wallace), I can deal better with the Evil moments.

Keith's car crash brought back uncomfortable memories of My Worst Day Ever So Far, By Julio (and he had much more of a fun, sexy time of it after the accident than I did, lucky SOB), but I liked the symmetry Keith and Harmony bonding over noir movies followed by Keith getting embroiled in a very noir situation with a married lady who seems a hop, skip and a martini away from asking Keith to take care of her husband, permanent-like.

We're two-thirds of the way through the rape story, and after a sluggish beginning to the arc, I've been really pleased with the last few episodes, particularly the cliffhangers on the last two. So who are our suspects to date?

• The Pi Sigs, who certainly wouldn't be above this -- and wouldn't it be ironic (dontcha think) if the feminists' faux-rape with Claire helped keep the Pi Sig rapist or rapists free and clear long enough to attack a few more women?
• Mercer, who had the suspicious cologne, the clippers and the GHB -- but who also has an alleged alibi from Logan. And remember the last time Veronica suspected Logan and his buddies of using GHB for some raping, things didn't turn out quite as she assumed.
• Tim the TA, though I think they're going more in an "unlikely allies" direction for him and Veronica.
• Professor Landry, though philandering and adultery don't automatically lead to serial rape. Still, Tim seemed troubled by more than just the catting around.
• Dean O'Dell, who I put here only because it's always fair to suspect the most famous guest star. I think it'd be a waste of Begley and a good character who could be around for several years to dispense with him in nine episodes.
• Nish and/or one of the feminists. There'd be some really messed-up psychology involved, and I think the faked rape was designed to make them into red herrings, but you never know.
• The college humor magazine guys. Not likely, since we only saw them in the one episode, but if they pop up again in the next one or two, I'm going to raise an eyebrow.

So what did everybody else think? Have I left out an obvious suspect? Should we start a contest to see who can come up with the most contrived in-story excuse why Mac or Weevil or whomever can't appear in the latest episode?

Click here to read the full post

This is why they don't have many friends

Spoilers for "House" and "Veronica Mars" just as soon as this nice doctor takes my temperature...

Late in the first season for both shows, I wrote a column discussing all the thematic similarities between the two shows. It was really just an excuse to get "House" fans to give "Veronica Mars" a try, but lately I'm starting to wonder if my fake thesis was such a stretch.

Specifically, Veronica has wandered through this entire season like someone who not only doesn't care what people think of her, but who would rather leave a bad impression than none at all. She's smug and curt with virtually everyone (Keith, Wallace and Mac being the notable exceptions), even people who don't remotely deserve it. The kid at the pizza place worshipped Veronica, wanted to talk about how awesome she was, and if this was a cable show, I'm thinking Veronica would have flat-out told him to STFU and answer her questions. Sure, she eventually made it up to him by letting him participate in the case a little, but the non-stop hostility and holier than thou attitude is getting old.

Now, House acts this way with everyone. But the misanthropy is the entire point of the character. He's not in any way a nice guy, he's often wrong in his personal and medical judgements, and he deserves every bit of grief that Detective Tritter is about to rain down on him. (Tritter himself is essentially House without the sense of humor, but that doesn't make him any less right in his assessment of House as bully.)

Veronica's supposed to be prickly and hard-boiled, but this season, she's moved beyond that to (as she almost put it herself in the premiere) straight-up douchebaggy. I don't know how much of this is in the scripts and how much is Kristen Bell; both writing and playing Veronica so that she's tough but likable requires a lot of effort, and it feels like at least one side is falling short this year.

And yet as much as Veronica was annoying me, as much as I wanted to yell at her for automatically jumping to conclusions with Weevil (more on that in a minute), this was maybe my favorite episode of the season. With the exception of Dick, every remaining season one character was used and used well -- Cliff cracking up Keith (and playing off Daran Norris' other career as a voiceover actor), Weevil and Logan getting chesty, Lamb belittling both Veronica and Weevil -- and even though all the stories felt like they had a scene or two missing, the episode overall had such momentum that I just went with it. Hell, they even had a cliffhanger ending to the mystery arc for the first time in forever. I dug it.

A couple of specific issues, though. Number one, making the first arc deal with an ongoing threat instead of something that's over and done with should be lending it more urgency. I get that Veronica doesn't trust Lamb, and also that the theft of the necklace distracted her, but the rapist is still out there, still attacking women, and she has a picture of who she thinks is the guy. Shouldn't she be bringing in additional help here, even if it's just Keith? Shouldn't "Have You Seen This Man?" fliers be up all over campus? Something? To me, the cliffhanger suggested that Claire may have made up the rape story to increase pressure on the Pi Sigs, but for most of the episode, Veronica has no reason to not think she'sthisclose to catching the guy before he rapes somebody else, and she's moving at half-speed at best.

Number two, the Weevil story would have worked better, I think, if Veronica assumed Weevil's innocence from the jump. (Maybe you tie the criminology class in more, either with one of the students trying to learn through doing and taking advantage of Weevil's recent guest lecture to find a useful patsy; or, failing that, just with the jerky TA hassling Veronica about bringing a thief onto campus.) As he says, they have too much history, and the pizza order in particular seemed like such a rookie mistake that she had to know Weevil didn't do it. I know this friendship has had its ups and downs, but this felt off to me.

I also wish there had been a clearer resolution to the Wallace story. Did he get caught recycling answers (which, since he used an old test, isn't an ethics violation at some schools), or did he just confess in the blue book to being out of his depth? And I wish there could have been even a single scene of him interacting with another castmember. The whole limited use thing feels more apparent this year than in seasons one and two for some reason.

Still and all, I really liked it. Ditto "House," which brought in David Morse as the kind of equally smart nemesis House has never really had. The Chi McBride character's danger came more from his wealth and power than any ability to match wits with House, and every now and then the show needs someone capable of taking him down a peg or 12.

Also pleased with Foreman getting one over on House with the nurse bet, and Cameron's "No, I'm hitting that, and it's totally hot," which was funny precisely because it was so out-of-character. Maybe House's sense of humor is finally rubbing off on the young'uns.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Logan + Logan = ????

Thoughts on, in order, "Veronica Logan," "Logan Girls" and "Friday Night Logans" just as soon as I Logan my Logan with some Logan, and possibly top it with an order of Loganberry pancakes...

So what exactly are the differences between VM-Logan and GG-Logan? Both are sons of privilege, with abusive (or, at least in the case of Mitchum Huntzberger, emotionally distant) fathers, they surround themselves with obnoxious rich friends, know how to be polite in front of adults but generally behave like asshats except when they're around their respective girlfriend -- and even there, it can be iffy. Genetics aside, if Jason Dohring and Matt Czuchry tried to pull the Prince and the Pauper gag and traded places for a week, would anyone be able to tell?

Which, of course, made casting Czuchry as VM-Logan's long-lost half-brother on last night's "Veronica Mars" seem like such genius casting that it didn't occur to me that he was an impostor until he mentioned that he surfed. (The episode was called "Charlie Don't Surf," an "Apocalypse Now" tribute.) A nice showcase for Mr. Dohring and a better Logan/Veronica story than last week.

The "Just Shoot Me" reunion gave an interesting twist to the usual private eye infidelity case, in that Keith's client badly wanted her husband to be a cheat -- and not just because she liked having barefoot pizza parties with Keith. Looked like Keith wanted that, too. I am unspoiled on this, and am curious to see if she returns down the road.

The heavier focus on the rape storyline was welcome, though the amount of time spent on Logan Squared robbed it of some urgency, particularly at the end. I'm sure we'll deal with the mysterious Asian guy in the photograph next week, but it felt off to have Veronica clear the frat and then immediately go back to helping Logan without making any apparent effort to track this guy down.

Speaking of our mystery man, there was a "Lebowski" shout-out in that scene where Veronica said "The Chinaman is not the issue here," but the censors cut it. So we had to settle for the "Careful, man, there's a beverage here!" In other Things That Got Cut, the girl with the rat trap idea was at one point going to be Alia Shawkat's character from "The Rapes of Graff," but they couldn't get Shawkat to come back for some logistical reason. And I have to assume there were more Wallace scenes that wound up on the cutting room floor, because I know how carefully Rob and company try to dole out appearances by the non-Veronica/Keith/Logan characters, and they wouldn't waste one of Percy Daggs' episodes on a single scene, would they?

On to the show where the other Logan actually plays Logan, "Gilmore Girls" continues the hard sell on the Lorelai/Christopher relationship, arguably past the point they needed to. I think I understood Lorelai's point in the scene where she contrasted Chris abandoning Rory with Sherry abandoning GiGi, but it came across as her absolving him of all guilt because he was just a stupid kid. (As opposed to him continuing to float in and out of Rory's life through all of his 20s and most of his 30s...) And I'm surprised Lorelai or Sookie failed to mention the other pitfall of sending GiGi to Paris on her own: if Sherry suddenly becomes so gripped with maternal feelings that she doesn't want to give her back, Christopher's going to have a much harder time re-asserting custody across international borders.

While GG-Logan doesn't make me want to punch him in the face quite as often as when he was first introduced, I still don't care much about him or his relationship with Rory. But once again I'm relieved that the Rosenthal regime has characters actually expressing their feelings immediately instead of passive-agressively stewing for half a season. And wasn't that the Orbit gum girl as Logan's leggy colleague?

For me, the highlight of the episode -- outside of the look of pure, Stanley on Pretzel Day glee on Richard's face at the prospect of seeing the Emily in jail photos -- was the bad pickle smell, which was silly and broad but got just enough screentime that I didn't get sick of everyone's horrified reaction to it.

Finally, we have our one non-Logan-related drama of the evening in "Friday Night Lights." (And I tried really, really hard to find some kind of Logan-ish element. Closest I came was the fact that the actor who plays Voodoo is also on "The Game," which airs on the same network as both of the Logans.)

I don't know that this episode was quite as gripping as the first three, but I liked the extended focus on Saracen, as well as continued realistic friction in the Taylor marriage -- and the meeting of the two stories when Coach realized he had just suggested that his quarterback get his daughter into the back of a Volkswagen (or similarly uncomfortable place).

Questions: Is there any way the Street rehab storyline doesn't turn into "Murderball: The Series"? Will the writers need to make Voodoo commit some particularly heinous act to justify Saracen's continued status as QB One? And whatever happened to the good old days when high school sports rivals just stole each other's goat mascots?

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

A world of pain

'Twas a football-themed night of TV for me. Spoilers for, in order, "Veronica Mars" and "Friday Night Lights," just as soon as I pour myself a white Russian...

I have a friend who's a massive Veronica/Logan 'shipper, so when a "Veronica Mars" episode barely has the two interacting, she gets mad, no matter how good the rest of the hour might have been. After the two of them shared only one scene last week, I think she was on the verge of driving to the production office and smashing all the windows on Rob's car while bellowing something about how this is what happens when you do something bad to a stranger...

Sorry, went on a "Lebowski" digression there for a second, though I was helped along by maybe the best shout-out to The Dude and Walter that they've done so far, with the Wichita linebacker's "Where's the playbook, Larry? Where's the playbook? You're entering a world of pain, Larry." Really, the only thing that would have made it better was if Larry's roommate was in an iron lung at the time.

Anyway, back to Veronica and her fella. This was a rare episode when all the mysteries took a backseat to Veronica's love life, with the playbook story in particular almost feeling like an afterthought. But I suppose you have to feed the 'shippers from time to time, and I liked that Veronica realized what a paranoid loon she was becoming. Plus, that story featured my favorite non-Lebowski line, with Logan's joke about Madison Sinclair being able to testify to Dick's status as a minute man.

This was a fairly light-hearted hour, with the two darkest events -- Weevil beating up the abusive boyfriend and the blonde getting raped -- taking place off-screen. And if the purpose of doing shorter arcs was to avoid the loss of momentum that both the bus crash and the bridge stabbing suffered in the middle of last year, I'm not sure it's working yet. There's going to be a significant rape storyline next week, but that'll still mean two out of the first four episodes barely dealt with it at all.

And am I the only one who wishes Weevil got to keep his job as Keith's new guy Friday?

Meanwhile, "Friday Night Lights" offered up its first non-Berg-directed episode. At first, I didn't feel the same sense of urgency I got in the first two episodes (the ditching of the day of the week title cards didn't help), but then we got to Taylor taking a page out of the Herb Brooks playbook and making the guys run until they came back together. (Though as a huge fan of "Miracle," the blatant theft/homage was a little distracting even there. It's one thing for "Battlestar Galactica" to steal from a 40-year-old movie like "The Great Escape," and another for this show to steal from a movie that came out two years ago.) Even without Berg behind the camera, the show continues to look amazing, particularly those shots at the end of the ringer QB from New Orleans wandering through the Dillon practice. And Kyle Chandler, usually such a mellow guy on screen, really had me believing in Taylor's new red-ass approach.

Haven't gotten all the way through "Gilmore Girls" yet, and probably won't until tonight. Off to write a column... Click here to read the full post

Veronica Mars: When both Marses failed

Spoilers for "Veronica Mars" just as soon as I pry open this coyote trap...

I'm going to be briefer than usual on this one, since I watched the episode a few weeks ago and wasn't in a position to take notes at the time.

Even though a lot of the Fitzpatrick stuff still makes me feel like I'm trying to figure out who killed the limo driver in "The Big Sleep," Enrico Colantoni really sold Keith's despair at the resolution. (Plus, that was a damned clever use of Vinnie Van Lowe's tracking device, wasn't it?) Veronica frequently screws up, but Keith's biggest blunders prior to this (getting kicked off the force for his handling of the Kane case) took place before the series even began, so when father and daughter both realized how badly they had botched things, it had an extra sting. (Scenes where Veronica and Keith both cry: gold.) My only question: wouldn't an auction house require some kind of proof of ownership to sell paintings as valuable as the ones Keith boosted from the crime scene?

The rape story progresses onward with the reintroduction of some of the frat guys from "The Rapes of Graff," not to mention Veronica's incredibly brief tenure at the school paper. (Would Andrea Zuckerman or Brandon Walsh have treated her and that poor chaperone lady so cruelly? I think not.) Since this story was only a factor in the last few minutes of the premiere, this episode was mainly about putting a bunch of pieces on the board (including the very welcome return of jerkhole Sheriff Lamb); I'm expecting more significant progress (red herrings, unlikely clues, etc.) in the coming weeks.

While I never participated in the prisoner/jailer experiment when I was in college, I'd read about it, and most of the accounts had people acting significantly worse than "Boy Meets World" Boy treated poor Samm Levine. (And why is it that all of the Freaks are gainfully employed, while our three Geeks have to scrape by on small guest appearances like this? Oh, wait, I know: because the Freaks were better-looking.) On the one hand, the fact that things never got that out of hand (and that neither Wallace nor Logan had their behavior altered by the experience) made it feel like a wasted opportunity. On the other hand, in an episode where Veronica and Keith -- and Mac, for that matter -- are dealing with massive doses of guilt, maybe the show needed one story that wasn't so dark.

So what did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post